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Wednesday, 24 April 2013

Day 19: Gaining Perspective

Today began even earlier as usual as we spent the night as
guests at Thien An and were invited to join the kids for morning stretching at
6.45am sharp. Our usual stretching
guru Sydney was sidelined by a six year old girl who decided to up the ante by
making use of some catchy music to encourage participation from the group. We enthusiastically joined in but were
made to look like amateurs by the dozen or so kids in front of us.

We were treated to a delicious breakfast, which consisted of
fruit juice, coffee, ham, cheese and freshly baked bread straight from the
orphanages’ in-house bakery. Words
cannot describe how much this was appreciated considering we’d just completed
our third full week of eating noodle- or rice-based Vietnamese dishes for
breakfast. It certainly would have
been the wrong moment to choose to go to the toilet as within minutes every
last crumb had vanished.

The hearty breakfast certainly set us in good stead for a
107km day but nothing could have prepared us for the challenges we faced later
in the afternoon. When we stopped
for lunch at around 60km in, everyone seemed to be having a good ride but as soon
as the afternoon sun took over the sky, people were evidently beginning to
struggle. Temperatures must have
been close to 40 degrees C and combined with endless hills and a nasty head
wind they did not make life easy.
At one point, myself and those around me were conquering little more
than 14km an hour and patience was wearing thin by the time we reached
90km. The last 20km or so were
among the most difficult I’ve experienced on the ride and judging by the faces
of my teammates at Ea Drang I wasn’t alone on that.

The intensity of the afternoon was made bearable by one
thing. We had started our day with
the orphans at Thien An and interacting with them served as a great reminder of
how incredibly lucky we all are to be able to do what we are doing. Witnessing first hand the work done by
the nuns there was inspirational and we are proud that some of the money we are
raising will help them improve the lives of some of Vietnam’s most
disadvantaged children.

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What H2H Is

H2H - Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City - is a charity bicycle ride that first took place in 2009. It is organized by volunteers and the funds raised go towards Vietnamese organizations that work with poor and disadvantaged children. The ride lasts for a month, and takes place every April. If you'd like to learn more, contact h2h.ride@gmail.com.